Place to see: Ryukyu Glassware Factory, Okinawa-ken, Japan

About this place:

The Ryukyu Glassware Craft is a roadside tourist attraction on Okinawa Japan. Here visitors can not only purchase hand crafted glassware, they can see the artisans in action as well as try their hand at creating their very own work of art. Ryukyu glassware is highly prized and usually very expensive. It grew as an industry as a indirect result of the American influence on the islanders after the battle of Okinawa, referred to by locals as the "Typhoon of Steel"

These steps lead up from one of several show rooms for the artisans masterpieces to another show room and the actual glassware factory, a potters craft house and the hill climbing kiln used to fire the works of artisans and customers alike.